Introduce the lesson:
This is a group activity focused on how we judge
people when we see them for the first time.

Distribute handout. Think about question #1
- a person you like or admire now but whose body
shape/size really doesn't fit the ideal image in
media or society and who didn't seem appealing when
you first met or saw him/her. Write the name
down or keep it in your head. This individual
could be a friend or family member or a well-known
figure in the new or on TV or in the movies.
We'll come back to this in a while.

Have people work individually to complete the
handout during the CD presentation and question #2.

I'm going to share with you clues
about 9 people. All are national or world
figures. All are fairly well-known people, but
some are talented, and some are notorious. The
clues are observable characteristics and photographs
with parts blacked out. Based on the clues, if
you know the person's name, write it in the
appropriate space on the handout. Please keep
your guesses to yourself until we've finished with
all 9 people.

Additional points:

Think about what society's standards of
appearance would tell us about each person

If participants don't know exactly who a
person is but want to guess, they should go for
it.

Characteristics will be shared as if all
mystery people were alive, but some are and some
aren't.

Person A is a male. He is described as
homely and gawky. Sometimes even the word
grotesque is used in relation to his looks. He
is 6'4" tall, weights about 180 pounds, and has an
unusual beard. Who is he?

Slide #2: A's characteristics and photo

Person B is a woman. She has a prominent
nose and is very wrinkled. She is quite short,
almost shrunken. Apparently, she doesn't have
much fashion sense because she wore the same
clothes every day.

Slide #3: B's characteristics and photo

Person C, a man, is shorter than average -
about 5'7". He is trim with deep blue eyes and
straight, dark hair, and he has an unusual mustache.

Slide #4: C's characteristics and photo

Person D was also a man. He, too, is
shorter than average, but he is very heavy, weighing
about 225 pounds. His mouth was somewhat
disfigured. Here's one person's observation
when D was a young man: "Everything he has on
is too small for him. His atrocious tie
dangles over his protruding stomach."

Slide #5 - D's characteristics and photo

Person E is a woman with dark hair and dark
eyes. Strikingly pretty, she was the winner of
a city-wide beauty pageant in the 1950s. She
dresses in the latest fashions and loves shoes.

Slide #6 - E's characteristics and photo

Person F is a man, 5'6". He was balding
and, as one person described him, "rotund." He
has a bulbous nose and often walked with a cane.

Slide #7: F's characteristics and photo

Person G is a man. He has ears that look
too large for his head, and his eyes droop.
His hair doesn't have much gray, but he is very
small.

Slide #8: G's characteristics and photo

Person H is a woman. She dresses
stylishly, but she's heavy, fairly short, and
somewhat wrinkled.

Slide #9: H's characteristics and photo

Person I was a man, 5'10". He
weighed 140
pounds, had blue eyes, and was often described as
handsome.

Slide #10: I's characteristics and photo

Discuss the answer to each question, using the
italicized information below and the following
common stereotypes related to appearance, including
body size and shape:

small = powerless

heavy = lazy

handsome/beautiful = happy, good

wrinkled = old, not worth listening to

other stereotypes generated by the group?

Optional: Time permitting, the group
can develop the above list in a short brainstorming
session.

Slide #11: Stereotypes

Optional: Stereotypes listed on
flipchart paper

Who is...

A = Abraham Lincoln - Even though he was often
described as gawky, homely, and grotesque, he was
one of our greatest presidents and a remarkable
human being.

Slide #12: Who is A
Slide #13: Lincoln

B = Mother Teresa - Described as "one of the
world's most celebrated and beloved humanitarians."
When she died in 1997, at the age of 87, her
possessions were a pair of shoes, a wash bucket, a
Bible, and 3 saris worth about $1.50 each. She
championed the dying in the worst slums of Calcutta.
She built more than 550 hospices in 120 countries to
make the end of life easier for those for whom
living has been so hard. Winner of the
Nobel Peace prize in 1979, hard work and time bent
her already small frame to just over 4 feet tall,
but she is one of the giants of the century."

Slide #14: Who is B
Slide #15: Mother Teresa

C = Adolf Hitler - Although moderate in his
physical appearance, Hitler was one of the most
cruel and ruthless people ever to have lived,
responsible for the torture and destruction of over
6 million people in death camps and the deaths of
millions more as a result of World War II.

Slide #16: Who is C
Slide #17: Hitler

D = Louise Armstrong - One of the all-time
great jazz musicians, and some would say the
greatest. As noted by one biographer,
"Armstrong defined what it was to play Jazz.
His amazing technical abilities, joy and
spontaneity, and remarkably quick, inventive musical
mind still dominate Jazz to this day."

Slid #18: Who is D
Slid #19: Armstrong

E = Imelda Marcos, wife and confidante of
Philippine dictator, Ferdinand Marcos, was chosen
Miss Manila in the early 1950s. "The Marcos
regime was marked by corruption, political
repression, and gross financial shenanigans.
The Marcoses were finally deposed and fled to
Hawaii. After her husband died in 1989, Imelda
returned to the Philippines. Later she was
arrested and charged with corruption and amassing
wealth during her husband's regime." She is
credited with saying, "Doesn't the fight for
survival justify swindle and theft? In
self-defense, anything goes."

Slide #20: Who is E
Slide #21: Imelda

F = Sir Winston Churchill - He was
rotund in much of his adult life, but he has been
recognized - more than anyone else - as "saving the
world from Hitler. In the summer of 1940, it
was above all thanks to him that Britain did not
surrender in the face of Hitler's onslaught.
Had that come about (and the possibility seemed very
close at hand), the U.S. could not have launched a
D-Day invasion from American shores, 3,000 miles
across the Atlantic, and we would all be living in a
very different world, dominated by the heirs of the
Nazis." "Churchill mobilized the English
language and sent it into battle."

Slide #22: Who is F
Slide #23: Churchill

G = Stephen Hawking - suffers from a
devastating neurological disease, but he is one of
the foremost mathematicians and theoretical
physicists in the world today. He is able to
move only in minor ways, for example, eye and finger
movements, and he speaks through a synthesizer.

Slide #24: Who is G
Slide #25: Hawking

H = Madeline Albright - was the Secretary of
State in the last half of the Clinton Administration
and the first woman to hold that position in the
history of the country. She has been described
as "an advocate of democracy and human rights and a
promoter of peace among nations. She is a
brilliant and witty woman who has been at the center
of major world discussions and who has helped to
forge America's alliances around the world."

Slide #26: Who is H
Slide #27: Albright

I = Ted Bundy - has been described as the most
unlikely looking serial killer in America. He
eventually confessed to the murders of 28 young
women and was executed in 1989.

Ask for
questions or discussion, including whether anyone
got all 9 right. If you have prizes, give as
appropriate.

Slide #28: Who is I
Slide #29: Bundy

10-15 min.

Countering prejudice.
Ask participants to return to question #1 on the
handout. Divide participants into groups of
2-4.

Ask if one person in each group would be
willing to describe the individual they had
misjudged upon first meeting or seeing.
Important: Unless the individual being
described is famous, participants should not
feel obligated to name or specifically identify
the individual they have in mind. A
general description is sufficient for the
activity.

Working within their groups, participants
identify some of the stereotypes and negative
statements that could be made about the
individual.

Based on their own insights and what they
may have learned from the "Name That Person"
activity, have the group develop and practice
responses that could be given to counter the
negative statements that could be made about the
individual.

Time permitting, groups can share some of
their key insights and effective responses with
the larger group.

Developed
by Suzy Pelican, Darlene Christensen, Debby Johnson, and Peg
Cullen Pasley for Small Victories, a mini-lesson series
promoting positive food, physical activity, and body image
attitudes and behaviors. Small Victories reflects
the mission and principles of WIN Wyoming, a multi-agency,
multi-state network that promotes healthy lifestyles instead of
a specific body size, shape, or weight. WIN Wyoming is
coordinated through Department of Family & Consumer Sciences,
University of Wyoming Cooperative Extension Service.
www.uwyo.edu/winwyoming
0203; slightly revised 0706

Issued
in furtherance of Cooperative Extension work, acts of May 8 and
June 30, 1914, in cooperation with the U.S. Department of
Agriculture. Glen Whipple, Director, Cooperative Extension
Service, University of Wyoming, Laramie, Wyoming 82071.
Persons seeking admission, employment, or access to program of
the University of Wyoming Shall be considered without regard to
race, color, religion, sex, national origin, disability, age,
political belief, veteran status, sexual orientation, and
marital or familial status. Persons with disabilities who
require alternative means for communication or program
information (Braille, large print, audiotape, etc.) should
contact their local UW CES Office. To file a complaint,
write the UW Employment Practices/Affirmative Action Office,
University of Wyoming, P.O. Box 3434, Laramie, Wyoming
82071-3434. The University of Wyoming and the United
States Department of Agriculture cooperate.